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streettogr

Streettogr

Street photography linkblog by ampatspell

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random rants & jokes

streettogr · 11 years

Photo

Talk to Strangers

One of the first instructions that we hear as children is ‘don’t talk to strangers’. Like a neon sign that flashes a warning in a frightened, exclusionary bubble each time we interact with someone new, the imperative shapes us profoundly as we make our way in the world.

Our online lives exacerbate this disconnectedness further as we slip into comas of aloneness by inserting earbuds or glancing at tiny screens effectively shutting ourselves off from strangers or even family members that are seated right next to us on the bus ride home.

Unfortunately, as we age no one encourages or even tells us to begin to talk to strangers again.

We’re communicative creatures that somehow choose to defer to unnatural isolation and fear as opposed to understanding and enlightenment. Not every new encounter or conversation is profound, but it forms an interconnectedness that has the power to change both participants.

Meet Sayeed Muhammad. I stepped out of my introspective cloud and had a conversation with Sayeed next to the Iranian Ministry of Culture building in Manila this morning.

I learned that Sayeed, who is Iranian, is on a hunger strike as he sits outside of the gates of the walled and gated compound. He is protesting his displeasure that his government is misrepresenting the pearl of glory and wisdom that is a 5000 year old Persian culture.

Whether or not he is successful in his campaign is something that might or might not have impacted my life until I made him a part of my life’s conversation … my personal story.

I wished Sayeed well as I moved on to another encounter on the street. In passing, he whispered with a smile that I was the first person that had spoken with him in the seven days that he has sat outside the cement barrier.

Do yourself and everyone else a favor. Embrace your humanity.

Talk to Strangers

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streettogr · 11 years

Photo

The First 10,000 Photographs

Henri Cartier-Bresson once said that “Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.” It was easily the most daunting lesson I took from the esteemed street photographer and photojournalist. But, did he really mean to discourage anyone who decides to pick up a camera and, well, get started taking those unsatisfactory thousands of photos? I think not.

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streettogr · 11 years

Link

#rangefinder #Long Reads #camera #article #japancamerahunter

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streettogr · 11 years

Quote

“You have to be able to observe life as if you were a camera all the time, constantly looking at light and the way that things are placed and the way people hold themselves. You need the ability to see something in someone or something that no one else really sees and be able to bring that to light. Basically, you have to be an obsessive crazy person.”

- Ryan McGinley (via stephen-edwards)

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streettogr · 11 years

Video

John Cleese on Creativity

#creativity #John Cleese #video

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streettogr · 11 years

Link

More than anything Street Photography is an attitude, it is an openness to being amazed by what comes your way, it is unlearning the habit of categorising and dismissing the everyday as being ‘just the everyday’ and beginning to recognise that extraordinary, beautiful and subtle stories are...

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streettogr · 11 years

Link

#Garry Winogrand #article #BBC #SF #MoMA

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streettogr · 11 years

Video

Garry Winogrand

youtube

Garry Winogrand, from Contemporary Photographie in the USA, 1982.

I’ve seen this knocking around for a while with the original German voice-over, and it’s great to finally see it in English (my shame at being mono-lingual continues to haunt me).

Hat-tip to John Goldsmith for throwing this up on FB yesterday. And if you’re not following John, you should be.

#Garry Winogrand #documentary #video #youtube

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streettogr · 11 years

Video